"30. Went hunting, and having found a deer, it ran to the head of the Neck before we could stop the dogs. Mr. Peake dined here."
In the following month, February, fox-hunting occupied nine days, and five days were given to surveying.
The laws of Virginia were very strict against interlopers on the Potomac. They were a great nuisance to the wealthy planters on its banks. Fishing and duck-hunting lured them thither. One day Mrs. Washington remarked to her husband, "I think that strangers are at the landing."
"Are you sure they are strangers?"
"Yes, I think so," Mrs. Washington answered. "Look and see."
"They are strangers, surely," responded Washington, after a critical look towards the landing. "An oysterman's craft, I think."
"What should an oysterman come to our landing for?"
"We shall find out before long, no doubt," Washington replied.
It was at the landing where the family barge was tied up. The affluent planters kept beautiful barges, imported from England, for the use of their families. Washington had one, rowed by six negroes, wearing a kind of uniform of check shirts and black velvet caps.